Old Faithful

The exit for Old Faithful is just ahead on the right. This is the one stop nearly everyone makes. Careful, though. The first right you'll see is the lot for Black Sand Basin, and the Old Faithful exit is just past it. Take the exit, follow the Old Faithful signs, and it's a mile or so in, on a one-way loop. If you're skipping it, stay left and go under the bridge, and I'll pick you up on the road east. Give yourself thirty to ninety minutes. You'll find eruption predictions at the visitor education center, the lodges and on the park's app. Old Faithful goes about every hour and a half, but that drifts, so be at the viewing area at least ten minutes early. Rangers forecast from the eruption that just ended. A short one means the next may come after about seventy-two minutes. The more common long one means about a hundred and three, give or take fifteen. That's why nobody can call it more than one eruption ahead. It isn't the biggest geyser in the park or the most regular. It's the big one that goes most often. An average eruption throws about seventy-four hundred gallons, four or five concrete mixer trucks' worth. This is your lunch stop, with restaurants, cafeterias and stores near the lodges. While you wait, look at how the Inn sits. Robert Reamer didn't face it toward the geyser. He angled it so guests would see the geyser as their stagecoach drew up, along the old road that's now the walking trail to Castle Geyser. Between the Lodge and the visitor center, the Yellowstone Tribal Heritage Center, open in summer, is where Native artists, scholars and presenters talk with visitors directly. Now one direction to keep for later, because I can't say it when you leave. Going out, follow the signs for West Thumb and come over the bridge. The ramp curls around and sets you on the road east, and the tour picks up there. West Thumb signs, over the bridge.